Tip number 5 – ‘You
cannot open a book without learning something.’ (Confucius, s.d)
Ok, so these tips are focussing on getting your film reviews
polished in the first instance; the habits you pick up now though, good or bad,
will carry through into everything else you write over the next 3 years and
beyond.
This why I urge you to not just
rely on the internet for your research – get yourselves up to the library and
hunt out some real books! Start with the recommended reading list at the end of
the brief, grab a book from the list, take what you can from it…then turn to
that books bibliography, and use that as a ‘springboard’ to bounce you off in a
different direction. This is especially
important when doing research for essays and the dissertation; there are areas
of study out there that you may never have considered, but by using somebody
else’s bibliography, you can get loads of new ideas, and possibly approach your
subject from a different angle. Just as
an example, my dissertation bibliography included scholarly titles such as Theorizing
Culture, An Interdisciplinary Critique after Postmodernism (Adam and Allan, 1995) and The Sanctity of
Rural Life: Nobility, Protestantism, and Nazism in Weimar Prussia, (Baranowski 1995), alongside slightly lighter-weight titles such as Why
Life Speeds up as you get Older- How Memory Shapes our Past (Draaisma,
2005) and Flogging a Dead Horse – Heritage Culture and its Role in
Post-Industrial Britain,
(Cosgrove and Reas, 1993).
Basically, it boils
down to the fact that the more interesting the stuff you read, the more
interesting your own writing will be :)
And the last word goes to Confucius again -“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.” (Confucius, s.d)
Bibliography
Confucius (s.d) 40 Inspiring Quotes about Reading from Writers. At: http://flavorwire.com/237785/40-inspiring-quotes-about-reading-from-writers/3/ (Accessed on 02.10.13)
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